Gwendoline Butler


Gwendoline Williams Butler was a British writer of mystery fiction and romance novels. She also wrote under the pseudonym Jennie Melville. Credited with inventing the "woman's police procedural," Butler is known for the Inspector John Coffin series and the Charmian Daniels series. Her works include modern detective stories, Victorian mysteries, Gothic tales, and romantic novels.

Biography

Gwendoline Williams was born on 19 August 1922 in South London, England, the daughter of Alice and Alfred Edward Williams. She attended Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, where she studied History and later became a lecturer.
On 16 October 1949, she married Lionel Harry Butler, a professor of medieval history at the University of St Andrews, and a historian who held fellowships at All Souls and was principal of Royal Holloway College. They had one daughter.
In 1956, she began publishing her John Coffin series of novels under her married name, Gwendoline Butler. Later, in 1962, she adopted her grandmother's name, Jennie Melville, as a pseudonym for her Charmian Daniels novels. Besides her mystery series, she also authored romantic novels. In 1981, her book "The Red Staircase" earned her the Romantic Novel of the Year Award from the Romantic Novelists' Association. In 1973, the Crime Writers' Association awarded her the Silver Dagger for her novel "A Coffin for Pandora."
Butler was a former member of the Committee of the CWA and a member of the Detection Club.
She died on 5 January 2013.

As Gwendoline Butler

John Coffin Series

Source:
Inspector Winter was the primary detective in the first three stories. He also appeared in the fourth story, "The Dull Dead". In subsequent works, the young John Coffin, described as "mercurial," made his debut and became the main protagonist in subsequent works. The book "Coffin in the Black Museum" relocated him from South London to an imaginary district in East London based on Docklands.

Books in the series

  1. Receipt for Murder
  2. Dead in a Row
  3. The Murdering Kind
  4. The Dull Dead
  5. The Interloper
  6. Death Lives Next Door also known as "Dine and Be Dead"
  7. Make Me a Murderer
  8. Coffin in Oxford
  9. A Coffin for Baby
  10. Coffin Waiting
  11. Coffin in Malta
  12. A Nameless Coffin
  13. Coffin Following
  14. Coffin's Dark Number
  15. A Coffin from the Past
  16. A Coffin for Pandora
  17. A Coffin for the Canary
  18. Coffin On the Water
  19. Coffin in Fashion
  20. Coffin Underground
  21. Coffin in the Museum of Crime also known as "Coffin in the Black Museum"
  22. Coffin and the Paper Man
  23. Coffin on Murder Street
  24. Cracking Open a Coffin
  25. A Coffin For Charley
  26. The Coffin Tree
  27. A Dark Coffin
  28. A Double Coffin
  29. Coffin's Game
  30. A Grave Coffin
  31. Coffin's Ghost
  32. A Cold Coffin
  33. A Coffin for Christmas
  34. ''Coffin Knows the Answer''

    Major Mearns and Sergeant Denny Series

  35. The King Cried Murder
  36. ''Dread Murder''

    Single novels

  • Sarsen Place
  • Olivia
  • The Vesey Inheritance
  • The Brides of Friedberg also known as "Meadowsweet"
  • The Red Staircase
  • Albion Walk
  • Butterfly
  • ''Let There Be Love''

    As Jennie Melville

Charmian Daniels Series

Source:
  1. Come Home and Be Killed
  2. Burning Is a Substitute for Loving
  3. Murderers' Houses
  4. There Lies Your Love
  5. Nell Alone
  6. A Different Kind of Summer
  7. A New Kind of Killer, an Old Kind of Death also known as "A New Kind of Killer"
  8. Murder Has a Pretty Face
  9. Death in the Garden also known as "Murder in the Garden"
  10. Windsor Red
  11. A Cure for Dying also known as "Making Good Blood"
  12. Witching Murder
  13. Footsteps in the Blood
  14. Dead Set
  15. Whoever Has the Heart
  16. Baby Drop also known as "A Death in the Family"
  17. The Morbid Kitchen
  18. The Woman Who Was Not There
  19. Revengeful Death
  20. Stone Dead
  21. Dead Again
  22. ''Loving Murder''

    Single novels

  • Hunter in the Shadows
  • The Summer Assassin
  • Ironwood
  • Nun's Castle
  • Raven's Forge
  • Dragon's Eye
  • Axwater a.k.a. Tarot's Tower
  • Painted Castle
  • Hand of Glass
  • Listen to the Children
  • ''Complicity''